When you’re a special needs parent, finding the time and energy to take care of yourself can sometimes be an unwinnable battle. So often I think that we feel guilty anytime we want to do something for ourselves because it’s less energy we can put into the care of our special little kiddos.
This is 100% the truth in my case.
Having said that, I’m also realizing that I have to physically be here, in order to take care of them. If I have a stroke or heart attack, it will probably be a result of a combination of stress and a lack of taking care of myself.
I’m determined to celebrate my 100th birthday and know that my kids are going to be alright.
While I can’t afford to join a gym or purchase needed exercise equipment, I’ve found a few things that I can do to improve my overall health and reduce my stress.
Right now I’m still at a point where I’m forcing myself to do these things because I’m honestly too tired to do much of anything when the kids aren’t home. When the boys are home, there’s no real breaks and quite frankly, it’s exhausting.
Here’s what I’m doing.
I’m making a great effort to walk 3 miles everyday. Motivation is a problem at times and that why I have enlisted my Mother to help. She enjoys walking as well and on days I just don’t want to go, she encourages me and I can do the same for her.
This has helped to bring my walking to an average of about 13 Miles a week.
When I walk, it quickly contributes to my overall goal of at least 10,000 steps a day.
I’ve also begun walking the dogs again. There hasn’t been any shootings in our neighborhood in awhile and things have been pretty quite. At this point, I feel pretty comfortable walking during the day with Maggie and Bella.
My goal with walking the dogs is to go twice a day. This burns their energy and can get me almost another 2 miles. That pushes me over 5 miles a day and we’ll over my 10,000 steps goal.
Aside from that, I’m parking further away from the door at the grocery store. I’m trying to work in the yard while the kids play outside or color on the sidewalk with chalk.
I can also simply make a few extra trips up and down the stairs during the day.
Walking is something that truly preserves my sanity and helps me to remain grounded. It reduces my stress and helps me to feel like I’m actually able to better parent my challenging kids.
The one thing I still struggle with is stress eating. Right now it’s my mortal enemy. It typically only happens as a result of a bad day with Gavin because I think I’m coming pretty well with the other challenges in my life. Everything about Gavin is just so tragic and heartbreaking for me. I just haven’t found a way to really cope with that yet.
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at least you are forcing yourself to do something. I have got to do that. maybe you will be giving me inspiration. i am an adult you would think that if something needs done i would just do it. i have ADD (medicated) but procrastanation is so easy for me. it effects all things. I dont go to the store to the last minute, i dont call att till the last minute, i dont clean up till the last minute, i could keep listing things. it makes me mad but not mad enough apparantly. both my boys (one NT and one NT but choincially ill) are both the same way. one is on ADD meds one is not. i wish i could come on this blog and be positive, I am so sick of being negative